After a strong end to 2007, the first six months of 2008 saw a drop in IT recruitment, with lower demand for IT security specialists. Public sector projects are slowing, which is causing a fall in demand from the consultancy sector, and, in the current economic climate, spending on systems security recruitment is starting to be squeezed.
However, this is balanced by increased awareness (particularly after some high profile security failures) of the importance of information security and the regulatory environment. Commercial end users are generally continuing to recruit and two major banks are supporting demand with large-scale network security improvement programmes, so the overall drop in demand is not dramatic.
Currently there are few unemployed IT security specialists and those who have been made redundant are managing to secure either contract or permanent work. Salary increases have declined, but this is more a reflection of a calming in the market rather than a radical shift.
